07/20/2016
Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway has released an audit of the City of Sparta municipal court, located in Christian County in southwest Missouri. The audit found the court does not properly track its own actions and activities, and does not meet legal requirements for monthly reports submitted to the City of Sparta. Reports are missing basic required information, including the name of the defendant, the amount of the fine imposed and court costs.
"Our team found that, too often, court files were incomplete, and records were missing important information," Auditor Galloway said. "If we want Missourians to respect and feel confident in our court system, they need to know it's a system they can trust."
In addition, the court has not adequately tracked information related to minor traffic violations and the city has not properly determined general operating revenues in order to calculate whether the city owed excess court revenues to the Department of Revenue.
The audit also describes a potentially improper $25 warrant fee assessed for failure to pay on each warrant issued by the court. This totaled $1,125 collected from July 2014 through June 2015, even though the law does not authorize these warrant fees or collections.
Auditors also found all staff who used court computers shared one user ID and password, which was originally assigned to the former court clerk. Sharing of user IDs and passwords weakens electronic data security and puts sensitive information at risk.
Auditors performed the municipal court audit in conjunction with an audit of the City of Sparta, which was requested through a petition of citizens. The city audit is currently in progress.
A complete copy of the audit report for the 38th Judicial Circuit, Sparta Municipal Division, which received an overall performance rating of fair, is available online here.
